Arrangement at ventilation installations in rooms provided with exhaust air windows and lighted by a number of fittings

ABSTRACT

An arrangement at veltilation installations applied to rooms with exhaust air window and being lighted by fluorescent tubes in fittings or fixtures distributed over the ceiling, wherein the passageway for conducting away from the room, the exhaust air being collected adjacent the window surface, is connected to passageways preferably mounted in the ceiling of the room, each of said passageways passing through said fittings of the room for cooling the fluorescent tubes before said exhuast air is conducted away or recirculated to the room via a conditioning unit.

llnited States Patent [1 1 Samuelsson July 3, 11973 ARRANGEMENT ATVENTILATION 3,375,773 4/1968 Wotowiec 98/40 DL INSTALLATIONS 1 ROOMSPROVIDED 3,424,233 l/l969 Meckler 38/40 BL X WITH EXHAUST AIR WINDOWSAND LIGHTED BY A NUMBER OF FITTINGS Karl-Erik Samuelsson, Klinten,Sweden Assignee: Aktiebolaget Svenska Flaktiabriken,

Nacka, Sweden Filed: July 14, 1971 Appl. No.:'162,595

Inventor:

Primary Examiner-William F. ODea Assistant Examiner-Peter D. FergusonAttorney-Dexter N. Shaw and Howson & Howson 5 7 ABSTRACT An arrangementat veltilation installations applied to rooms with exhaust air windowand being lighted by fluorescent tubes in fittings or fixturesdistributed over the ceiling, wherein the passageway for conducting awayfrom the room, the exhaust air being collected adjaeent the windowsurface, is connected to passageways preferably mounted in the ceilingof the room, each of said passageways passing through said fittings ofthe room for cooling the fluorescent tubes before said exhuast air isconducted away or recirculated to the room via a conditioning unit.

2 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure PATENTEDJULB I973 i Q/I//////////////////////// w 1. n

ARRANGEMENT AT VENTILATION INSTALLATIONS IN ROOMS PROVIDED WITH EXHAUSTAIR WINDOWS AND LIGHTED BY A NUMBER OF FITTINGS This invention relatesto a novel arrangement at ventilation installations applied in roomswith exhaust air windows, which rooms are lighted by a number offluorescent tubes enclosed in fittings or fixtures and distributed overthe ceiling surface of the room, by which arrangement the ventilationcomfort can be improved by simple means and the operations costs formechanical ventilation be reduced.

The modern building materials provide the possibility of a veryeffective insulation of the outer walls, and for partition walls usuallythe application of lightweight material, for example plaster boards onsteel members. In many cases light-weight plaster boards also are usedas material for sub-ceilings. As a result thereof, the heat storage infacade wall rooms of modern buildings is considerably less than it wasthe case at the earlier conventional heavy concrete structures. Thewindows of facade wall rooms therefore constitute a heat source to beregarded a source of sudden thermal disturbance. The relatively highheat radiation from fluorescent tubes with high lighting effects nowinstalled to an ever increasing extent often constitutes a further heatsource.

The invention has as its object to balance the disturbances from bothsaid heat sources which often occur at random, and thereby to improvethe ventilation comfort and reduce the costs of the entire installationsuch, that the advantages of the invention can be expected beingutilized to a greater extent, for example in office rooms and,particularly, in hospital wards. In wards, the demand of qualified andrapidly performed work increases continuously and mistakes and errorsoften have far-reaching damaging effects. The personnel, therefore, fortheir well-being and efficiency, must be given an optimum ventilationcomfort, without being subjected to sudden changes during the day,caused for example by intensive sunshine and, respectively high lightingeffects because of cloudy weather.

The arrangement according to the invention, applied at ventilationinstallations of the aforesaid kind, is characterized in that itspassageway for conducting away from the room the exhaust air collectedadjacent the window surface is connected to one or several passageways,which preferably are provided in the ceiling of the room, and each ofwhich passes the fluorescence tube fittings of the room for cooling thetubes by said exhaust air before it is conducted away and, respectively,possibly recirculated to the room via a conditioning unit. Due to thefact that fluorescent tubes are lighted at cloudy weather and darkness,but not at sunny weather, the arrangement according to the invention, atventilation installations of the aforesaid kind, always brings aboutautomatically a balancing of the heat, which otherwise would have beensupplied to the room by solar or lighting heat and constitute a sourceof sudden thermal disturbance.

According to a preferred embodiment, the exhaust air window of the roomis of the kind disclosed in the copending application of the same dateNo. 162,419(Ahlberg)based on the Swedish Pat. application No. 10099/70.This arrangement, moreover, renders possible by simple means acontrolled supply of fresh air and a balanced proportion of supply airand exhaust air.

The invention is described in greater detail in the following, withreference to an exemplifying embodiment according to the accompanyingdrawing, which shows a cross-section through a ventilation installationequipped with an arrangement according to the invention.

Referring to the drawing, 2 designates a room provided with an exhaustair window, for example of the kind defined in applicants older SwedishPat. No. 302 193. A functional improvement, however, can be obtained byutilizing the type of exhaust air window proposed in the copendingapplication of the same date No. 162,419 based on the Swedish Pat.application No. 10099/70, which window is provided with a combinedsupply and exhaust air device mounted in a recess above the window.Hereby, the arrangement claimed provides the additional advantage of acontrolled supply of fresh air and a balanced proportion of supply andexhaust air to the room. The room may be a large-space office or ahospital ward, with a great number of fluorescent tube fittings orfixtures. 3 designates a passageway for conducting away from the roomthe exhaust air collected adjacent the window surface. 4 designates oneor a plurality of passageways mounted one behind the other in theceiling of the room and connected thereto. Said passageways pass in andout through the opposed wallsof the fittings 6 by means of theschematically indicated air-tight tubular sockets 7 and 8, respectively.5 designates a number of fluorescent tubes connected in parallel andmounted within the closed fitting 6. The room in the embodiment shown isassumed to be provided with a separate sub-ceiling 9, in which a greatnumber of fluorescent tube fittings are arranged in rows over the entireceiling surface, as it now usually is the ease, a.o., in large-spaceoffices. The passageway or passageways 4 continue past the fluorescenttube fitting and remove therefrom the exhaust air, possibly via aconditioning unit (not shown) for heat recovery, filtering andrecirculation of air to the room 2.

I claim:

1. In ventilation installations applied to rooms with an exhaust airwindow, which rooms are lighted by a number of fluorescent tubesenclosed in fittings and distributed over the ceiling surface of theroom, the improvement wherein said installation includes a passagewayopen to the room interior and passing along the surface of said windowfor conducting away from the room the exhaust air collected adjacent thewindow surface, passageways mounted in the ceiling of the room having aconnection at one end to said first men tioned passageway and aconnection at the other end to an air conditioning unit forrecirculating the room air, each of said ceiling passageways passingthrough the fluorescent tube fittings of the room for cooling thefluorescent tubes by said exhaust air, before it is conducted away andrecirculated to the room via a conditioning unit.

2. An installation according to claim I, characterized in that theexhaust air window of the room has an opening to the room interior atthe bottom thereof and has an opening at the top thereof to provide saidpassageway therebetween for conducting away the collected exhaust airadjacent the window surface.

1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,742,837 Dated July 3 1973 v Inventods) Karl-Erik Samuelsson It is certifiedthat error appears in the above-identified patent and that said LettersPatent are hereby corrected as shown below:

In the heading before [52] U.S. Cl. the following should be'added:

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data July zl 1970 Sweden..........-...lOl00/l970 Signed and sealed this 13th day of August 1974.

(SEAL) Attest MCCOY M. GIBSON JR. C MARSHALL DANN Attesting OfficerCommissioner of Patents ORM $69) I USCOMM-DC eoa'rs-Pao fi' U.S.GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE l9. 0-866-Sll.

1. In ventilation installations applied to rooms with an exhaust airwindow, which rooms are lighted by a number of fluorescent tubesenclosed in fittings and distributed over the ceiling surface of theroom, the improvement wherein said installation includes a passagewayopen to the room interior and passing along the surface of said windowfor conducting away from the room the exhaust air collected adjacent thewindow surface, passageways mounted in the ceiling of the room having aconnection at one end to said first mentioned passageway and aconnection at the other end to an air conditioning unit forrecirculating the room air, each of said ceiling passageways passingthrough the fluorescent tube fittings of the room for cooling thefluorescent tubes by said exhaust air, before it is conducted away andrecirculated to the room via a conditioning unit.
 2. An installationaccording to claim 1, characterized in that the exhaust air window ofthe room has an opening to the room interior at the bottom thereof andhas an opening at the top thereof to provide said passagewaytherebetween for conducting away the collected exhaust air adjacent thewindow surface.